Navigation

User login

LUG Meetings

Meet up with Montana Linux people on IRC. We currently gather at the #ubuntu-montana room on the freenode network. Stop in and say "hello" or even ask/answer some questions. Don't have to be a Ubuntu user either. Or use the web-based chat client.

BillingsLUG
The BillingsLUG hasn't had a meeting in a while but they are hoping to start back up real soon. Really.

BozemanLUG
The BozemanLUG meets on the FIRST Thursday of the month at 7PM

MSU-Bozeman
EPS Building, Rm 259
Bozeman, MT
Used to be the LAST Thursday, but we changed it.

XenClient is a client-side, Type-1 hypervisor which is quite a neat concept. Basically you know how server virtualization has been amazing for servers... with one of the strong points being that it abstracts the hardware and makes deploying new systems easy? Well imagine being able to do that for end-user computers... and doing it in such a way where you can take the VM with you even when you aren't connected to the Internet/LAN... and then being able to sync back when you able to touch base. Deploying a new desktop system could be just as easy as saying, download the VM image from the storage center and go with it. That is the promise of a client-side hypervisor... but since it is type 1 (rather than type 2 which is "hosted" on top of an OS) it is much more secure and performant. Melanie especially covers the dark art that is disk and data synchronization and the challenges they bring.

This video was recorded back in April but I had a technical snag and couldn't post it until now.

As you may know I'm a big Fedora fanboi and I really enjoyed meeting and listening to the new Fedora Project Leader talk. Robyn found out the projector in the room was dead but that was ok as she wasn't planning on using slides anyway. I really enjoyed the frankness of her talk and can see why she was picked to be the new FPL.

David Mandel's Teaching Linux and Linux System Administration as Distance Education Classes.

I arrived right as the talk was starting and during the first minute or so I am franticly setting up the camera. Sorry about that. There is quite a bit of interaction between David and several audience members who also teach Linux in an academic setting. I teach a Linux SysAdmin class myself and enjoyed this. It was on the later track on the second day so it was allowed to run a bit long. Enjoy.

As you may be able to make out from the poster image, Oscar is running Krita on Microsoft Windows 7. He wanted to show the new 2.4 release and had trouble getting it for his preferred Linux distro and had to settle due to time constraints.

While Oscar is fairly new to Krita, he is a very skilled and experienced digital artist and didn't take long to adapt to it (1 week). With his Wacom tablet, he makes it look easy. Room conditions and video resolution / quality make it hard to see some finer details so make sure to have your own copy of Krita active so you can play with it as you watch, pause, watch this video.

Dan, Warren and I returned Monday afternoon from the Linuxfest Northwest 2008 event. What follows is my review of the show.

Introduction

For those unfamiliar with the Linuxfest Northwest, it is an annual, two-day event held at Bellingham Technical College in Bellingham, Washington on the last weekend in April. It has become a hub of Linux activity in the Northwest with several of the Washington area Linux Users Groups supporting it. Visitors seem to come from all over the country especially those places that don't have a Linux conference anywhere near them. I also attended the LFNW last year so a bit of this review compares this year with last.

Let's get this out of the way... it was obvious that there were less visitors to the show this year than last year. I haven't seen any numbers published yet though. While that might sound bad it did make for a better show as it allowed for more time with the presenters and the exhibit booth folks.